MPs had previously backed Conservative amendment to ask developers to provide hollow bricks for endangered birds
Providing every new home with at least one “swift brick” to help endangered cavity-nesting birds has been rejected by Labour at the committee stage of its increasingly controversial planning bill.
The amendment to the bill to ask every developer to provide a £35 hollow brick for swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings, which was tabled by Labour MP Barry Gardiner, has been rejected by the Labour-dominated committee.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/23/2025 - 11:27
The Brazilian photographer has died at 81, leaving behind a career filled with striking images taken around the world. ‘Through the lens of his camera, Sebastião tirelessly fought for a more just, humane and ecological world,’ a statement from his family read.
Sebastião Salgado, photographer known for Amazon rainforest images, dies aged 81
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05/23/2025 - 10:45
Brazilian photographer’s work highlighted injustice and introduced rainforest to the world
‘I photographed the world’: the career of Sebastião Salgado – in pictures
The Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, who is best known for his dramatic black-and-white photographs that highlighted injustice and introduced the Amazon rainforest the world, has died. He was 81.
His death was confirmed by the Instituto Terra, the environmental restoration non-profit he founded with his wife of six decades, Lélia Wanick Salgado. In a post on Instagram, the institute described Salgado as “much more than one of the greatest photographers of our time”.
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05/23/2025 - 09:45
Party spokesperson says policy has ‘clear benefits for securing jobs and energy independence’
Reform UK has promised to reverse the government’s ban on fresh North Sea oil and gas drilling as a “day one” priority if elected to power, with the taxpayer taking a stake in the projects.
Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, has met with senior UK oil executives in recent weeks to pledge the party’s support for the industry, which has been hit hard by the government’s windfall tax and moves to block fresh North Sea exploration licences.
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05/23/2025 - 09:30
Chris Weston, CEO of Britain’s biggest water company, faces questions over ‘paused’ executive bonus scheme
The chief executive of Thames Water has been ordered to tell MPs whether any executives have received payments from a controversial bonus package taken from a £3bn loan.
Britain’s biggest water company admitted last week that senior managers were in line for “substantial” bonuses linked to an emergency £3bn loan. Thames claimed the payouts were vital to retain staff and prevent rival companies from “picking off” its best employees. The disclosure provoked fury as the company has said its finances are “hair-raising” and that it came “very close to running out of money entirely” last year.
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05/23/2025 - 08:00
Farm country voted for Trump in 2024, but many of his actions – from tariffs to federal cuts – are hurting growers
Donald Trump may have won the votes of the US’s most farming-dependent counties by an average of 78% in the 2024 election. But the moves made by his administration in the past few months – imposing steep tariffs, immigration policies that target the migrant labor farmers rely on, and canceling a wide range of USDA programs – have left many farmers reeling.
“The policies of the Trump administration are wreaking havoc on family farmers. It’s been terrible,” said John Bartman, a row crop farmer in Illinois. Bartman is owed thousands of dollars for sustainable practices he implemented on his row crop operation as part of the USDA’s Climate-Smart program.
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05/23/2025 - 06:38
Mosquito experts say cuts in aid will lead to collapse of crucial surveillance and control in endemic countries
Climate change could make the UK vulnerable to insect-transmitted tropical diseases that were previously only found in hot countries, scientists have warned, urging ministers to redouble efforts to contain their spread abroad.
Leading mosquito experts said the government’s cuts to international aid would lead to a collapse in crucial surveillance, control and treatment programmes in endemic countries, leading to more deaths.
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05/23/2025 - 05:46
Signs more typically seen in Australia aim to raise awareness after more than 30 moorland fires since March
Wildfire warning signs normally seen in the parched Australian outback have been installed on English moorland for the first time.
In a stark illustration of the worsening impact of the climate emergency, signs have been put up in the Peak District and south Pennines, where there have been more than 30 moorland fires since March.
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05/23/2025 - 05:00
Study details evolutionary change of Anna’s hummingbirds and finds ranges have expanded to follow such devices
Which came first: the feeder or the bird?
A seemingly straightforward question, but the answer might not be so simple. According to a recently published study in Global Change Biology, the use of human-made hummingbird feeders has changed the beak sizes and shapes of Anna’s hummingbirds, and spread their range from a narrow pocket of California all the way up the coast to British Columbia.
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05/23/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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